


Asylum

by ReaderJane



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-01
Updated: 2011-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-25 02:02:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/270506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReaderJane/pseuds/ReaderJane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When villains get desperate, they turn to the Slayer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Asylum

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: BtVS S6, after Flooded  
> Written for the sb_fag_ends challenges, Mortifex:Lych, Mortifex:Wight  
> Disclaimer: still not mine, alas

"You came here for what?"

"Asylum. I'm in breach of contract with Wolfram and Hart and they're going to kill me."

Buffy gaped at the pudgy man in the cloak who shivered on Giles' doorstep.

"Let me get this straight. You accepted a contract with Wolfram and Hart against me. You screwed it up. And now you want me to _save_ you?"

"You're the Slayer."

Giles came down the stairs, turning on the lights as he passed the switch. The day had suddenly clouded over until almost no light came through the windows. "I've found it!" Giles tapped the open book he carried. "The Byzantium codex clearly says--" He caught sight of the wizard in the doorway. "Who's this?"

"This," Buffy pointed. "Is Mortifex."

"Good heavens." Giles squinted at the man, scarcely taller than Buffy herself. He patted his pockets, remembered his glasses were on top of his head, and settled them onto his face. "This is the bounder who's been sending all sorts of creatures to harry us?"

Mortifex looked shamefaced. "It wasn't personal."

Buffy retorted, "I'd call sending an army of skeletons, zombies, revenants, ghosts, a poltergeist and... What was that last one?"

"Liches," Giles supplied absently.

"--liches after us pretty damn personal. I lost two good pairs of boots. What have you got to say for yourself?"

"...promise I won't do it again?" Mortifex' wide forehead was shiny with sweat, despite the cold breeze blowing in past him.

Buffy was about to turn him away when Spike and Xander came from the back hallway.

"I could swear we just packed those boxes a week ago," Xander hitched his thumb over his shoulder. "I'm going back to the storage unit for another carload." He noticed Mortifex. "Who's Short, Round and Robe-y?"

"This is Mortifex," Buffy answered. "He was hired by Wolfram and Hart to take out the Slayer. I'm still alive, ergo he's on their shit list. He wants protection."

Xander yelped with laughter.

Spike stepped forward to get a closer look at Mortifex. "He looks evil. Can I eat him?" Mortifex gaped.

"You-- you don't scare me. Everyone knows you can't hurt humans."

Spike smiled. "Depends how much I want to pay for the pleasure, mate." He looked Mortifex up and down. "You're a little greasy for my taste, but if Buffy gives the word--"

"Sorry," Buffy drawled. "No eating humans, no matter how much they deserve it." Mortifex closed his eyes in relief.

Giles spoke up. "Can you give us a reason _why_ we should help you?"

Mortifex babbled like a convict offered a deal by the district attorney. "I know what's coming next! When my efforts didn't produce results within the timeframe my clients had specified, Wolfram and Hart had their sorcerers sever my control over the latest creature that was supposed to attack you. Now it's after both of us. I can tell you what it is, where it comes from."

"So, spill," Xander demanded. "What's next on the monster parade?"

"A wight." Mortifex shuddered. "I didn't want to use wights. Can't stand the things. I was hoping my plan would succeed before I got that far down the list."

"How disappointing for you," Giles said drily. "When is this wight due to arrive?"

"About... now?"

In the silence after Mortifex's words, they all could hear a distant murmering. A dead voice chanted, getting closer. The voice sent a shiver down their spines.

Xander crossed to the window.

"Holy Uncle Fester!" He grabbed Mortifex's collar and dragged him inside, slamming the door shut behind him. "It's like Thing from the Addams Family." Xander grimaced. "Only it's got a really long arm."

They all crowded around Giles' window to see. A pale white hand was in the courtyard outside the apartment. It finger-walked toward Giles' front door. Behind it stretched an arm so long it disappeared around the corner of the courtyard. There was no elbow in sight.

"Hunh," Spike snorted. "Shouldn't be too hard to sort." He and Giles exchanged a nod.

"Are you kidding?" Xander asked. "If that's how big the arm is, the whole body's gotta be..."

"A whole lot taller than me," Buffy finished grimly. "We might need your bazooka, Xander."

"'Course not," Spike scoffed. The others looked at him blankly. "Oh, come on! We all know the story."

Giles cleared his throat. "I think the young people might not be so familiar with _this_ part of the tale." Mortifex followed the conversation with nervous, hopeful looks.

Spike remained puzzled for a moment, but then his face cleared. "Right," he rolled his eyes. "This bit wasn't in the _movie_." He looked pointedly at Xander.

"Care to enlighten us, oh Evil Annoying One?" Xander edged away from the door as a scritching sound came from the other side.

Spike walked over to one of the chests stacked beside the coffee table, pulled out a battle-axe and tossed it to Buffy. "I'll say the words while the Slayer wields the weapon."

"Okay," Buffy said firmly. Let's do this thing. Giles, you get the door. Xander, you keep an eye on Morty. Don't let him double-cross us while we're fighting."

Giles waited until Buffy was poised in front of the door, her axe gripped in both hands. He pulled the door open. The hand stretched still further on its cold white arm, grabbing for Buffy's throat. Buffy swung the axe at it, but the hand whipped back, retreating until only the tips of its fingers showed around the doorframe.

Spike intoned, looking slightly embarrassed,

  
_"Get out, you old Wight! Vanish in the sunlight!  
Shrivel like the cold mist, like the winds go wailing,  
Out into the barren lands far beyond the mountains!"_   


Buffy swung again and managed to take off a finger before the hand let go of the doorframe. A snarl sounded from outside the courtyard. The hand, dripping black blood, made a grab for Buffy's arm. She parried but didn't land another blow.

At that moment a gap appeared in the heavy cloud cover and the sun shone brightly through. Spike cursed and jumped away from the doorway, slapping at his knees which had started to smoke.

The snarl from outdoors turned to a shriek, but the hand made another grab for Buffy, managing to snag a lock of her hair. She batted at the hand, which was too close to hit effectively with her battle-axe.

Giles grabbed the dead wrist, wrestling with it as he continued Spike's incantation:

  
_"Come never here again! Leave your barrow empty!  
Lost and forgotten be, darker than the darkness,  
Where gates stand forever shut, til the world is mended."_   


At the last words, he succeeded in releasing the hand's grip on Buffy's hair. While Giles still clutched the wrist, she swung her axe and chopped through the arm where it crossed the threshold.

The shriek rose to a scream as both hand and arm started to blacken in the bright sunlight. In moments there was nothing but a long line of ashes stretching across the courtyard.

The victorious friends turned at the sound of a thud behind them. Mortifex had fainted.

"That wasn't too bad," Xander said.

Buffy sighed. "Now we've got an out-of-work necromancer on our hands." She frowned at the plump wizard sprawled on the floor.

"We can't trust him to be reformed, clearly." Giles polished his glasses. "What shall we do with him?"

Spike smiled with glee. "Let's chain him in the bath."  



End file.
